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Christian Children’s Fund
2005 Annual Report
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MISSION STATEMENT
Christian Children’s Fund creates an
environment of hope and respect for children in
need from all cultures and beliefs in which they
have opportunities to achieve their full potential,
while providing practical tools for positive
change—to children, families and communities.
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CONTENTS
Message from the President and
the Board Chair ........................................2
Poverty’s Core Issues ................................4
Early Childhood Development ................6
Education ..................................................8
Emergencies ............................................10
Where CCF Works ................................12
Health & Sanitation................................14
Livelihood/Family Income ....................16
Nutrition & Food Security ....................18
Child Protection......................................20
Grants/Partnership Support ..................21
Financial Statements ..............................22
CCF Around the World ........................24
Cover photo by TamilNet. In February 2005, former US
Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush visited a CCFSri Lanka program where they met with staff and talked
to child tsunami survivors—witnessing firsthand how
CCF created a positive environment for children in
tsunami-affected areas. They praised CCF for the way we
are helping children recover.
Davidson Jonah
22182_CCF_AnnualReport
These Sudanese women are celebrating in the face of
severe adversity. They fled their homes to escape the
Sudanese militias who were attacking and killing innocent civilians. Now living in refugee camps in neighboring Chad, they receive assistance from CCF. Here, they
are celebrating International Women's Day.
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Message from the President and Board Chair
Dear CCF Family,
For decades, regardless of where we are working, Christian Children’s Fund is focused on safeguarding children. This past year saw one of the worst natural disasters in the world’s history in
Southeast Asia, and now in the U.S. we have experienced Hurricane Katrina, yet another catastrophic event where children are extremely vulnerable. CCF responded immediately to the tsunami
in countries where CCF has had a longtime presence; and we are addressing the needs of children in
Katrina-affected areas of Mississippi where we work.
The tsunami took lives and homes, leaving in its wake shock, grief and devastation. The world
responded with tremendous compassion, and we are now seeing signs of amazing progress and
resilience among hard-working people determined to start over. We also realize there is much more
to do to meet the challenges facing the “tsunami generation” of children who have experienced great
loss and have seen their lives drastically changed.
The tsunami’s destruction called upon us to act quickly, and our donors made great sacrifices to
help meet the challenge. This generosity enabled CCF to immediately begin recovery efforts, first
providing food and other emergency supplies, but—remaining true to our purpose—also initiating
programs with long-term, lasting benefits. Among tsunami victims in India, Indonesia and Sri
Lanka, CCF has started the rebuilding process—providing income-generating activities, helping
fishermen get back to work, rebuilding local infrastructure and helping children reclaim their childhoods through the establishment of more than 200 Child Centered Spaces.
While assisting children in both of these devastating emergencies, CCF continues to provide
care and support to impoverished children the world over. CCF is well positioned to carry this
progress forward for the sake of the children. Progress in one small community starts a powerful
chain reaction that flows from one community to the next. We thank our donors for making this
possible.
John F. Schultz
President
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Ann C. Crouter
Chair of the Board
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As part of CCF’s good stewardship,
CCF's President, Board members
and staff periodically visit and
review CCF programs throughout
the world. CCF has earned the
BBB's Wise Giving Alliance Seal of
Approval and an "A" rating from
the American Institute of
Philanthropy, a prominent national
watchdog agency. CCF has also
received a third-party certification
of compliance with the child sponsorship standards of InterAction,
the largest alliance of US-based
CCF Staff
international development and
humanitarian NGOs.
Having earned the various
seals, ratings and certifications attests to CCF's
ongoing commitment to
meeting or exceeding the
highest standards of
accountability in delivering
Sarah Tolan
programs and services to
children.
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Poverty's
Core Issues
Mary Arnold
What does poverty mean for
children? How does CCF make an
enduring impact on poverty
within a particular community?
What types of programs can
empower parents to improve their
lives? How best can CCF bring
about meaningful and lasting
changes in children's lives?
CCF launched a groundbreaking study on poverty
in the belief that a broader, longer-lasting impact can
be achieved only when we base programs on a deep
understanding of child poverty. Rather than build on
assumptions and normative ideas, CCF developed a
framework founded on research and the actual experiences of children.
CCF listened to the real experts—children and
parents living in poverty—to best understand how
children experience poverty and what poverty means
to them.
This unique study dispels some of the commonly
accepted myths pertaining to children's acute awareness of their own poverty and how it affects their lives
on a daily basis. It reveals that children make many
direct and often very positive contributions to the
struggle to overcome poverty, from fortifying the emotional and psychological resilience of other family
members to taking the future into their own hands.
Increasingly, children are now playing an active role in
planning and decision-making about issues affecting
their lives.
Study results demonstrated that a critical aim is to
increase resilience in children
by supporting their coping
skills and building on their
resourcefulness. Showing
how humiliation and shame
play a significant role in
poverty, an 18-year-old girl
from Belarus says, "Poor
children are shy — they are
not confident and it is difficult for them to communicate
with others. It's not that they
don't want to but they don't
know how to do it."
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CCF Staff
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The study identified the following three key factors of
poverty that impact children's lives:
• Deprivation—the severity, intensity and contextualized nature of children's experiences of impoverishment with regard to their material conditions and
access to basic services
• Exclusion—the processes through which individuals
or groups of children are wholly or partially marginalized from full participation in the society in which
they live
• Vulnerability —the dynamic nature of children's experience of poverty in terms of how they are affected by,
or resilient to, the array of changing threats in their
environment
The findings from this study have begun to shape
the thinking of CCF about program design and methods. They are proving to be a key tool for staff, providing research that will more effectively improve the lives
of children around the world.
These Thai boys enjoy an afternoon of fun
so important to their development and selfesteem. CCF's educational and child development programs focus on building self-esteem, a
key to fighting poverty.
Interviewing children for CCF's poverty study
revealed children's thoughts on how poverty
affects them. These interviews have helped
CCF gain valuable insights. Here is one
child's view of poverty:
“You feel bad. You feel like the odd one
out…you lack self-esteem. You feel like you
shouldn't talk wherever you are, like you
shouldn't be expressing ideas. You feel lonely.
You feel ashamed.”
—16-year-old girl, Rusinga, Kenya
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Early
Childhood
Development
The Right Start Affects
a Child's Whole Life
In most of the world, children
never see a doctor before they begin
school. Some miss key developmental milestones, and others are left
with lasting physical and mental
difficulties. A complicating factor:
parents don't understand that early
stimulation is vital for their children's overall development process
and for their children's success later
in life.
CCF’s Early Childhood
Development programs address
these issues and are getting children
off to a strong, healthy start.
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CCF's Early Childhood Development programs
take a community-based approach. Targeted are all
aspects of the children's development, including health
and nutrition, while also empowering parents and community leaders to make lasting changes.
In the United States, the Brickfire program in
Mississippi provides Early Childhood Development
services in a center-based child care program. Serving
children beginning at six months of age and ending when
they enter school at age six, the full-time child care program uses its own curriculum. Teachers plan daily activities to enhance each child's growth in language, cognitive,
motor and social/emotional skills, thus offering a rich and
stimulating environment.
ECD programs like this take place throughout many
other countries where CCF works. In The Gambia, the
child's overall needs are addressed, including health and
nutrition—going far beyond only educational needs.
Parents learn the importance of a healthy start to life and
its long-term impact on a child's future. Some parents are
trained as ECD caregivers, implementing many elements
to create a successful program.
The effectiveness of CCF's Early Childhood
Development program in Honduras —the Guide
Mothers program— was recognized when 1,700 CCF
Guide Mothers won the Honduran Presidential Award
for their volunteer work.
CCF trains parents who are role models in their
communities to serve as guide mothers. These guide
mothers travel throughout rural areas making home visits.
Working with parents to address any signs of developmental delays or other problems, they track children's
immunizations, health, height and weight, information
critical to monitoring and maintaining proper growth and
development.
Now a three-year study by the Bernard van Leer
Foundation provides additional confirmation about the
success of CCF's approach. This study compared children from two very similar villages. Children participating
in CCF's Early Childhood Development program in
Honduras had parents who were more involved, and the
children received more opportunities. Primary teachers
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also saw very clearly the differences in the two groups.
Children from the CCF group were better able to
adapt to school and had good habits and behavior.
They were more responsible, sociable and communicative than their counterparts.
In countries throughout the world, thousands of
children from birth to six are benefiting from CCF's
Early Childhood Development program. In CCF
preschool classrooms, specific themes build on the children's natural interest and curiosity about their environment, while linking other areas of the curriculum such
as math, language, literacy, health science, music, arts
and crafts as well as physical development. In this
atmosphere, children excel.
A profound outcome of this program is that the
children gain a sense of self. Therefore, researchers have
discovered, children in the CCF program have hopes
and dreams for the future.
CCF's Early Childhood Development programs
worldwide address each child's health and nutritional needs first. Before children have the
capacity to learn, their basic needs must be met.
In addition, parents are encouraged to take an
active role in their child's development to
ensure proper support and follow-up at home.
Some of these programs are conducted in day
care centers, while in rural areas, trained staff
travel from home to home to monitor children's
needs and conduct health assessments.
These girls and boys are participating in
CCF-Mexico’s Early Childhood Development
program, where critical needs are addressed
so they can reach proper growth and developmental milestones.
Mary Arnold
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Thea Shermer
Education
Hundreds of thousands of children are
educated every year with CCF help. Most of them
would have had little hope of ever going to school.
Child Friendly Schools in the Philippines,
started after CCF conducted educational
research, looking at education from several
viewpoints. While education is aimed at
the child's benefit, a well-rounded and
successful education hinges on community and parental involvement.These
schools enlist community participation as
part of the educational process, taking a
wide view of education. Community
members help by finding children who are
not attending school and getting them
enrolled; serving as advocates to promote
education; and looking beyond classroom
education to address health, nutrition and
overall well-being. Most important, the
community has learned the value of caring
about what happens to children in their
families and communities before they enter school
and after they leave it. This program has experienced tremendous acceptance and is growing as a
method of education.
In many developing countries, girls are especially at risk of not receiving a basic education.
Although the United Nations reports that girls'
education has been expanding all over the world, it
is still just the beginning. CCF is working hard to
improve educational opportunities for girls. One
program in Kenya addresses a longtime tradition,
that of forced early marriage of girls, some of
whom marry as early as age eight. CCF offers a
dramatic alternative—encouraging villagers to
replace the harmful practice of “booking” girls for
early marriage with a new practice of “booking”
them for school. To do this, an innovative school
was established—the Naningoi Girls Boarding
School. The success of this revolutionary program
earned CCF's East Africa Regional
Representative, Margery Kabuya, the Agathe
Education Offers a
Window of Hope
To young girls at risk of early
marriage, to children who work as
forced laborers, to girls and boys
living in families where day-to-day
survival is the norm, education
offers hope of a brighter future.
CCF offers this hope throughout
its programs.
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The Maasai
The Maasai are a pastoral tribe in Kenya who
subscribe to the practice of “booking” their
daughters for marriage—usually before they are
even born. CCF substitutes this traditional
practice with a new practice of “booking” them
to attend school instead. The brilliance of the
program is that it uses the familiar process of
offering a dowry to a girl's father (in the form of
donated livestock and gifts). The Naningoi project has recruited well respected Maasai elders
to become “suitors” on the school's behalf. The
elders act just as any other “suitor” would,
offering gifts to fathers—in order to “book”
young girls into the school.
Thea Shermer
award from the Forum for African Women
Educationalists.
In Mexico an innovative new program is
strengthening the cultural pride of youth. The program involves youth in 13 communities where older
children work with elementary school children to
promote good values, positive ideas, self-improvement and a new way to see the world. This also
means that CCF is building community leaders
from the ground up.
A similar program is helping youth in Belarus,
where extreme poverty has seriously scarred children emotionally and psychologically. Widespread
unemployment, poor living conditions, and lack of
food and clothing magnify the stigma of being poor.
Often the children become involved with crime, as
well as drug and alcohol abuse. The CCF Peer
Education Program specifically helps children and
adolescents build self-esteem and develop their personal growth. This successful initiative pairs children, trained by CCF specialists, with other girls
and boys their age to discuss such
life-changing issues as health,
HIV/AIDS, substance abuse prevention, effective communication,
conflict resolution, leadership, and
other life skills. They also train the
next group of peer educators.
Thanks to vocational training, parents in Afghanistan have
developed new skills like welding
or sewing so they can support
their families. Over 2,500 parents
have received training and loans to
start small businesses such as agricultural product processing, bakeries, sewing and animal husbandry.
No matter what form education takes, CCF is
offering hope. Education is an investment in the
future, one that CCF is making in 34 countries
throughout the world.
These girls face the prospect of a much brighter
future because their parents have “booked”
them for school instead of early marriage.
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Emergencies
Taking Key Steps
After Disasters
After the peaceful blue skies
and turquoise waters turned into a
raging tsunami, nature became a
force that altered lives forever. CCF
stepped in with emergency relief just
hours after the tsunami.
After families were driven from
their homes by Sudanese militias,
they fled across the border to Chad,
where CCF is helping
them rebuild their lives.
After the fighting
stopped in Liberia, CCF
began helping child soldiers adjust and return
home again.
CCF responds to
emergencies with immediate food, supplies and
psychosocial interventions, gradually addressing the long-term needs
of recovery and reconstruction.
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Even though the tsunami caught the world's
attention this past December, it is only one of many
emergencies and natural disasters encountered by families
in developing countries and here in the U.S.
Children are at risk due to war and civil conflict. In
Sudan, thousands of people have fled to refugee camps in
the neighboring country of Chad to escape brutal ethnic
cleansing. More than 70,000 Sudanese people have been
massacred and over 1.5 million displaced.
For those who have escaped to Chad, CCF has set
up Child Centered Spaces, where children receive help
to begin a long recovery process. In addition, CCF has
established health, psychosocial and income-generating
programs for parents. Soon after, Chadian women recognized the benefits of CCF's Sudanese work, and at their
request, programs were begun for them as well.
CCF-Liberia has implemented a three-year community revitalization and vocational skills training program
for war-affected women and youth. The program
addresses children's rights and helps former child soldiers
return to society. It also helps
those who were sexually
assaulted to recover and return
home. As part of the demobilization process, CCF works
through six interim care centers. Along with a place to help
children adjust to civilian life,
the centers provide basic
health screening and services,
prevocational training and
nonformal education. CCF
traces families so they can be
reunited with their children
and works with communities
to accept children and youth
once they have returned home.
Northern Ugandan children and families have also suffered greatly due to civil unrest. CCF continues to work
with the World Food Programme, addressing food security, child protection and public health, but also providing
Caroline Jenkins
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emergency food. Working with UNICEF, CCF has
initiated a Child Protection Program in three districts of
Uganda. It targets 25,000 children, offering programs
such as Child Centered Spaces and nonformal and peer
education.
Tsunami Recovery Efforts
When the waves receded from the deadliest
tsunami in modern times on December 26, 2004, CCF
provided immediate emergency assistance. CCF
distributed food, milk, water and other supplies. Within
days, CCF was working with parents and community
members on reconstruction and began setting up Child
Centered Spaces, to give children a safe place to heal from
the devastation they had experienced. In tsunami-affected
India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, CCF is addressing longterm recovery, and helping families regain their livelihoods.
In India, CCF established more than 90 Child
Centered Spaces in tsunami-ravaged villages, and helped
parents and community members initiate livelihood programs that included construction and repair of fishing
boats, cleaning up debris and putting wells back into
working order.
In five tsunami-devastated districts of Sri Lanka,
CCF has established more than 50 Child Centered
Spaces, and rebuilt water and sanitation facilities and
cleared sand from rice fields. CCF has implemented a
USAID-funded “cash for work” program, enabling 38,000
people to earn wages while rebuilding their communities.
Now, CCF is establishing livelihood ventures targeting
women.
In Indonesia, CCF initiated more than 100 Child
Centered Spaces, has cleared debris, and has been a
leader in child protection efforts among those who moved
from camps to temporary housing.
CCF is recognized for its strategies to safeguard children following emergencies or natural disasters. CCF initiates programs that enable children to return to their normal activities, while also helping their parents and communities nurture them as they look toward the future.
This drawing is one child's view of what happened during the tsunami. It was drawn as
part of an activity in one of CCF's Child
Centered Spaces in Sri Lanka. Art is a tool used
by CCF that allows children to express their
thoughts and feelings in Child Centered Spaces,
one of which was visited by former presidents
Bush and Clinton in February 2005. See cover
photo.
In Katrina's Wake
Christian Children's Fund is responding to the
needs of children and families in central and
northern Mississippi where the impact of
Hurricane Katrina is being felt. While the devastation on the coast is being widely reported,
areas in central and northern Mississippi have
also experienced significant property and structural damage. CCF is restocking food pantries,
repairing a flooded technical center for youth,
distributing school supply and recreation kits for
10,000 children, and setting up small laundromat facilities for evacuees, among other emergency responses.
For more information
regarding CCF’s emergency response, visit
www.ChristianChildrensFund.org/emergency
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